up vote 2 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

Does anybody know, what software used in movie for sequencing vaccine? It seems real: link to screenshot

enter image description here

link|improve this question
6  
It seems real? The two smaller, boring panels on the right seem real. The colorful graphics in the main panel look to me like pure movie-grade eye candy. ;) But maybe I'm too cynical. There is an awful big list of software here if you have some hours to kill. – gnovice Oct 21 '11 at 17:31
1  
Generic Sciency-Looking Screensaver with Cool Graph and Bluish Palette – DVK Oct 21 '11 at 17:43
4  
I don't see how a question about the software in an SF movie isn't on topic, and isn't constructive. – DampeS8N Oct 21 '11 at 18:41
1  
@DampeS8N, if the software is real, then it isn't science fiction. If it isn't, it is just CGI. He isn't asking about particulars of a science fiction software, he just wants to know if it is real or not. – Jack B Nimble Oct 21 '11 at 21:40
7  
From our FAQ these are on topic: "Historical or societal context of a work, Behind-the-scenes and fandom information" - I'd say that information on a prop in a movie counts as the second, and information about the state of this type of software is the first. – DampeS8N Oct 22 '11 at 1:25
feedback

1 Answer

up vote 12 down vote

I'm afraid the software isn't real.

Scientific/Research/Academic software tends to look like DOS/Windows 95 and Excel. Fancy graphics like those ones you showed are very very rare here because these tools are built for niche scientific audiences and without large (typically any) budget. Often they are built by the scientists themselves.

The image you show features really slick graphics and a custom UI for the OS widgets (the close/minimize buttons, the frames around the window, other UI components.) It is a LOT of work to code these kinds of things. These developers would not spend that kind of time on things that are 100% cosmetic. Especially since the default widgets are very easy to use.

Most UI for science/research/academic software is built with the WYSWYG editor in Visual Studio if they have it, or basic console style inputs if such an editor is not present.

Example Software:

Example Images:

link|improve this answer
I went through en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_data_visualization understood this already. I'm software developer,so I've decided there is some commercial company which probably built something fancy. But after all, and your comment it seems NOT real. So I have a field to work on =). The biggest commercial software suite from dnastar.com/default.aspx there are a lot of features, but looks like from 90-s. – Zeldan Oct 21 '11 at 18:55
2  
Just doesn't need to NOT look like it is from the 90's so why spend money to change? These design idioms are ugly, but still completely usable and effective. There are no pretty jackhammers. – DampeS8N Oct 21 '11 at 19:17
@DampeS8N Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Guess the SF quote time: '[There] was an elegance to the [ship] that screamed competence. "The damn thing has the feel of a hand axe built in a factory"' Answers in chat. – dmckee Oct 21 '11 at 22:42
1  
That second link was very disappointing - it wasn't at all what I was expecting. – John C Oct 22 '11 at 12:43
@JohnC, Expecting software for maintaining your Raptor, huh? – DampeS8N Oct 22 '11 at 15:23
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.